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Deeper than shallow: Evidence for structure-based parsing biases in second-language sentence processing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2011

JEFFREY WITZEL ,
NAOKO WITZEL  and
JANET NICOL
JEFFREY WITZEL*
Affiliation:
University of Arizona and University of Texas at Arlington
NAOKO WITZEL
Affiliation:
University of Arizona and University of Texas at Arlington
JANET NICOL
Affiliation:
University of Arizona
*
ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE Jeffrey Witzel, Department of Linguistics & TESOL, University of Texas at Arlington, Box 19559, 403 Hammond Hall, Arlington, TX 76019. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

This study examines the reading patterns of native speakers (NSs) and high-level (Chinese) nonnative speakers (NNSs) on three English sentence types involving temporarily ambiguous structural configurations. The reading patterns on each sentence type indicate that both NSs and NNSs were biased toward specific structural interpretations. These results are interpreted as evidence that both first-language and second-language (L2) sentence comprehension is guided (at least in part) by structure-based parsing strategies and, thus as counterevidence to the claim that NNSs are largely limited to rudimentary (or “shallow”) syntactic computation during online L2 sentence processing.

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 33 , Issue 2 , April 2012 , pp. 419 - 456
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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